I feel like there was an anecdote in Dan Okrent's book about how thousands of middle or upper class people who voted for Prohibition were shocked to find out it applied to them - they had all figured it was only for poor people and they'd be able to continue drinking regularly.
Should our pal Mr. Kristof ever care to dig into some actual data on this:
1. Columbia University researchers Sarah McKetta and Katherine Keyes analyzed National Health Interview Survey data from 2006-2018 and concluded that women’s binge drinking—defined as four or more drinks in one occasion, or roughly two hours—was concentrated among women at the highest levels of socioeconomic status. (True, this pattern is less pronounced for men.) They concluded that “women at all levels of SES [socioeconomic status] increased binge drinking, but increases were most pronounced among high SES women.”
2. According to Gallup polling, upper-income and highly educated Americans are more likely than other Americans to say they drink alcohol. Whereas eight in 10 adults in these socio-economic status groups say they drink, only about half of lower-income Americans and those with a high school diploma or less say they drink. And, Gallup notes: "While higher socio-economic status drinkers are more likely to say they have had an alcoholic drink more recently, they are not more likely than others to report overindulging in alcohol. There are no meaningful differences by income level in the percentage who say they sometimes drink more alcoholic beverages than they should."
While I don't feel comfortable coming down too hard on the side of "rich people are drunk all the time," it feels at least worth stating that there are increasing levels of alcohol consumption associated with higher socioeconomic status, and that the disease of alcoholism doesn't check your tax return.
I feel like there was an anecdote in Dan Okrent's book about how thousands of middle or upper class people who voted for Prohibition were shocked to find out it applied to them - they had all figured it was only for poor people and they'd be able to continue drinking regularly.
Should our pal Mr. Kristof ever care to dig into some actual data on this:
1. Columbia University researchers Sarah McKetta and Katherine Keyes analyzed National Health Interview Survey data from 2006-2018 and concluded that women’s binge drinking—defined as four or more drinks in one occasion, or roughly two hours—was concentrated among women at the highest levels of socioeconomic status. (True, this pattern is less pronounced for men.) They concluded that “women at all levels of SES [socioeconomic status] increased binge drinking, but increases were most pronounced among high SES women.”
2. According to Gallup polling, upper-income and highly educated Americans are more likely than other Americans to say they drink alcohol. Whereas eight in 10 adults in these socio-economic status groups say they drink, only about half of lower-income Americans and those with a high school diploma or less say they drink. And, Gallup notes: "While higher socio-economic status drinkers are more likely to say they have had an alcoholic drink more recently, they are not more likely than others to report overindulging in alcohol. There are no meaningful differences by income level in the percentage who say they sometimes drink more alcoholic beverages than they should."
While I don't feel comfortable coming down too hard on the side of "rich people are drunk all the time," it feels at least worth stating that there are increasing levels of alcohol consumption associated with higher socioeconomic status, and that the disease of alcoholism doesn't check your tax return.